


High Treason

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode Tag, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-04
Updated: 2006-02-04
Packaged: 2019-05-30 09:32:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15093980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Sam drowns his sorrows.  Post-ep toSomebody\\\\\'s Going to Emergency, Somebody\\\\\'s Going to Jail.





	High Treason

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

 

TITLE: High Treason  
AUTHOR: Kasey  
SUMMARY: Sam drowns his sorrows  
RATING: PG, ESF(T)  
POST-EP: To "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail" (2.16)  
THANKS: Lieutenant Flip, the most obedient beta in the world! 

"So basically, I'm just gonna get plastered." 

"Okay." Josh shrugged and smiled. 

"Really. I just....  I'm just gonna get plastered." 

"Donna can drive you home, it's fine." 

"Yeah," she volunteered. "It's not a problem or anything." 

"Good. Because I'm gonna be drunker than a college frat boy by the time we   
leave this fine establishment." 

"Okay, Sam, right there, the fact that you said 'fine establishment', you   
gotta get some liquor in your system." Josh hid a smirk. 

"I couldn't agree more," Sam said as Josh handed him a beer. "See,¦" he   
said, after a long drink. "it would've been different if he would've,   
y'know, showed remorse or something." 

"He wasn't sorry?" 

"Just sorry he was more of an idiot than the Spanish drug guy. Y'know, I   
honestly don't know what he was expecting." 

"What'd'ya mean?" 

"He's upset because Mom threw him out." 

"What'd he expect to happen?" 

"See, that's my point." Another long drink. "Y'know how my mom found out   
about it?" 

"How?" 

"It's not like you think." 

"You mean she didn't walk in on him having sex with -" 

"No, Josh, but thank you for bringing up the visual of my father doing that   
at all, let alone with someone who I only know as being SatanWoman." 

"No problem." 

"So it wasn't anything, y'know, dramatic, it was basically just... my  
father being an idiot, see, he-..." Sam laughed as he shook his head. "He told her." 

"He told her?" 

"My father told my mother he'd been having an affair with another woman for   
28 years, that all the times he'd say he was going out of town on business   
he'd be up banging her in Santa Monica at their apartment, which he bought   
her, by the way." 

"And he's surprised she kicked him out?" 

"Apparently." 

"You talked to him?" 

"Yeah. Right before I got here." 

"Is he a moron?" 

"I think that's where I get it from, really. Which poses the question of how   
the hell he hid it for twenty-eight years." 

"I honestly couldn't tell ya." 

Sam stared intently off into space. "Y'know, I put my father on a pedestal   
when I was little.  He was this-...this great lawyer, and I wanted to be just   
like him" 

"Yeah, I know the feeling." 

"He worked so hard, I thought, that's why we always had money, why I had   
more things than most of my friends did in terms of toys and clothes and... and   
why we moved into the big house when I was five.  Little did I realize he   
bought us those things out of guilt." 

"Sam." 

"He bought us a lot of nice things not because we had so much more money and   
he wanted to flaunt it, and not even just because he felt bad for being gone   
all the time like some parents do it, was-…it was so he could feel better for   
the fact that we weren't his only family." 

"Did he have-" 

"Kids? A daughter half my age." 

"Ouch." 

"Yeah." Sam laughed ruefully. "He's paying for her to go to Harvard next   
year. She's graduating early." 

"He paid for you-" 

"Yeah. Y'know the irony, though? In all this, the most ironic part is he   
was telling me about Kristin - that's her name. She wants to be a   
lawyer she said she wants to be just like him." 

"She wants to be like him?" 

"Yeah!" Sam began to laugh so hard tears came to his eyes. "I wonder if she   
realizes how incredibly stupid he is, this man she wants to be so much like,   
that he's a traitor and an idiot and possibly one of the worst people to   
aspire to be like." 

"Sam, don't go-" 

"Don't go doing what, Josh? Saying bad things about my father? Because   
lemme tell you something, I think I have the right right now." 

"…I'm just sayin-" 

"He lied to us, Josh, he lied to us for 28 years, all but four years of my   
LIFE…all but six years of their marriage, I." he fell silent. "I don't   
know." 

"You don't have to." 

"What?" 

"You don't have to know the answers. I don't' know all the answers about my   
dad and he's been gone 3 years, I don't know the answers about Joanie and   
she's been dead since I was 8." 

"That's different." 

"Is it?" 

"Not really." 

"Right." Josh nodded decisively. "So y'know what we do now?" 

"Get plastered?" 

"Damn straight." 

"Josh." Josh paused, mid-gulp. "He committed high treason on a sacred   
institution." 

"So maybe you should give 'im a pardon." Sam nodded, deep in thought, then   
continued to drink his beer.

  


End file.
